The Play’s The Thing: Improvising Shakespeare with Shawn Westfall
This workshop is SOLD OUT.
Please sign up for the waitlist. We will reach out to you if a workshop spot opens up or if an additional workshop date is added.
Workshop Description
All the world's a stage, Shakespeare wrote, and, yes, that includes even our down-market improv stages: as we know, one of the most popular improv-comedy shows in the country is iO Chicago's "Improvised Shakespeare": they've wowed audiences all over the globe with their preternatural ability to improvise in the style of Shakespeare, approximating the Bard's conventions and language with such skill and competence that a few years ago even Sir Patrick Stewart, one of the most revered Shakespearean actors of our day, played in on one of their shows. Combining improv plus Shakespeare's unique language and style may seem initially daunting, but it's actually something that can readily learned, and, once learned, an absolute blast to perform on stage. In this workshop, taught by veteran DC improvisor Shawn Westfall, you'll learn how to identify the tropes and plots of Shakespearean plays, pepper your improvised dialogue with Shakespearean language, as well identify the kinds of characters who populate his tragedies, comedies, and histories.
Topics covered in this workshop:
- What constitutes a Shakespeare play; the aspects that make it recognizably “Shakespearean”?
- The plots, tropes, and characters of Shakespearean plays
- Shakespearean language, and how to approximate it while, yes, making it up (it’s surprisingly easy)
- The fun strategies, choices, tactics, and moves to make your scenes look and sound “Shakespearean” (or, more accurately, what most audience members think Shakespeare looks and sounds like)
This workshop is useful for experienced improvisers ready to enhance their improv toolboxes with one of the most fun and rewarding (and universally recognized) parodic improv structures available.
Prerequisites
- Completion of any advanced level improv class from an organization or theater’s core curriculum; encouraged: a familiarity with Shakespeare/plays in general.
Instructor Bio
Shawn Westfall has been teaching improv for over two decades. For 13 years, he was the exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv, inaugurating the first improv comedy class there 21 years ago and forging the curriculum that eventually became the DC Improv Comedy School. He left the DC Improv to co-found The Unified Scene Theater, a brick-and-mortar improv comedy space in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC, where he was also the Artistic Director, teaching classes in short-form and long-form improv, as well as workshops in advanced improv techniques and strategies. Most recently he spent three years at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, where he taught classes in beginning and advanced long-form improv comedy.
Class Details & Schedule
This is a 2.5 hour-long in-person workshop.
Location: The DC Arts Center, 2438 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Date: Tuesday, May 28, 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Registration Fee: $60
Class Policies
- Must be 18 years of age or older to enroll.
- All sales are final: classes are non-refundable. Classes are only refundable to students if there are not enough students for the class. Classes are nonrefundable under all other circumstances.
- Masks are optional but not required.
- See Rails Comedy's Student Handbook for full course policies.
Waitlist
- If this class is sold out, please sign up for the waitlist above to be considered in the event of a student cancellation.
Ticketing Page Issues - Troubleshooting Steps
- If the ticketing page doesn't allow you to purchase tickets and appears sold out, it is possible that another customer has those tickets waiting in their cart and we've reached venue capacity. Please return in 15 minutes and those tickets may be available if the other customer did not purchase them.
- If the error code [Object object] appears and prevents you from checking out, this usually means that you are entering some wrong information, likely the address and/or zip code connected to the credit card you are trying to use. Please double check your payment information and try again.
- If you continue to run into issues, please contact walker@railscomedy.com.
Shawn Westfall
Shawn Westfall has been teaching improv for over two decades. For 13 years, he was the exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv, inaugurating the first improv comedy class there 21 years ago and forging the curriculum that eventually became the DC Improv Comedy School. He left the DC Improv to co-found The Unified Scene Theater, a brick-and-mortar improv comedy space in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC, where he was also the Artistic Director, teaching classes in short-form and long-form improv, as well as workshops in advanced improv techniques and strategies. Most recently he spent three years at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, where he taught classes in beginning and advanced long-form improv comedy.
Shawn's been performing improv for nearly three decades at various improv theaters around the country: Loose Screws (Honolulu, HI); The Oxymorons (San Antonio, TX); ComedySportz DC, and most recently at Curious Comedy Theater (Portland, OR). In DC, he founded and directed Bright Young Things, the first improv troupe to headline at the DC Improv. He was a founding cast member and spent four years in Washington Improv Theater's iMusical (under the direction of Travis Ploeger). He's been a member of two improvised Shakespeare troupes: The Artless Bards (which he founded and co-directed at The Unified Scene Theater) and Love, Shakespeare (at Curious Comedy Theater under the direction of Kristen Schier). But it was in the long-form improv duo ShawnMikael[s], which he co-founded in 2010 and where he partnered with local DC legend Mikael Johnson, that he's enjoyed the most success, playing to audiences all over the country in numerous festival appearances and billets, racking up accolades, awards, and recognition during its existence, to include selling out a monthly performance at a 70-seat venue 33 months straight. Currently, the duo are working on debuting a new show at a space in the 16th Street Heights neighborhood of DC.
Shawn is also the founder and primary facilitator of events for Commedia Partners, a consultancy that's brought improv as a strategy for fostering creativity, leadership, teambuilding, change management, business strategy, and organizational development on-site and off-site to various private, public and non-governmental organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Discovery Communications, Booz Allen Hamilton, Ogilvy, Burson-Marsteller, The Washington Post Company, GEICO, The World Bank, Chipotle, Flying Dog Brewery, the National Institutes of Health, CACI, Sol Systems, Marriott International, DowDupont, ESPN, and Facebook among numerous others.
This workshop is SOLD OUT.
Please sign up for the waitlist. We will reach out to you if a workshop spot opens up or if an additional workshop date is added.
Workshop Description
All the world's a stage, Shakespeare wrote, and, yes, that includes even our down-market improv stages: as we know, one of the most popular improv-comedy shows in the country is iO Chicago's "Improvised Shakespeare": they've wowed audiences all over the globe with their preternatural ability to improvise in the style of Shakespeare, approximating the Bard's conventions and language with such skill and competence that a few years ago even Sir Patrick Stewart, one of the most revered Shakespearean actors of our day, played in on one of their shows. Combining improv plus Shakespeare's unique language and style may seem initially daunting, but it's actually something that can readily learned, and, once learned, an absolute blast to perform on stage. In this workshop, taught by veteran DC improvisor Shawn Westfall, you'll learn how to identify the tropes and plots of Shakespearean plays, pepper your improvised dialogue with Shakespearean language, as well identify the kinds of characters who populate his tragedies, comedies, and histories.
Topics covered in this workshop:
- What constitutes a Shakespeare play; the aspects that make it recognizably “Shakespearean”?
- The plots, tropes, and characters of Shakespearean plays
- Shakespearean language, and how to approximate it while, yes, making it up (it’s surprisingly easy)
- The fun strategies, choices, tactics, and moves to make your scenes look and sound “Shakespearean” (or, more accurately, what most audience members think Shakespeare looks and sounds like)
This workshop is useful for experienced improvisers ready to enhance their improv toolboxes with one of the most fun and rewarding (and universally recognized) parodic improv structures available.
Prerequisites
- Completion of any advanced level improv class from an organization or theater’s core curriculum; encouraged: a familiarity with Shakespeare/plays in general.
Instructor Bio
Shawn Westfall has been teaching improv for over two decades. For 13 years, he was the exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv, inaugurating the first improv comedy class there 21 years ago and forging the curriculum that eventually became the DC Improv Comedy School. He left the DC Improv to co-found The Unified Scene Theater, a brick-and-mortar improv comedy space in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC, where he was also the Artistic Director, teaching classes in short-form and long-form improv, as well as workshops in advanced improv techniques and strategies. Most recently he spent three years at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, where he taught classes in beginning and advanced long-form improv comedy.
Class Details & Schedule
This is a 2.5 hour-long in-person workshop.
Location: The DC Arts Center, 2438 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Date: Tuesday, May 28, 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Registration Fee: $60
Class Policies
- Must be 18 years of age or older to enroll.
- All sales are final: classes are non-refundable. Classes are only refundable to students if there are not enough students for the class. Classes are nonrefundable under all other circumstances.
- Masks are optional but not required.
- See Rails Comedy's Student Handbook for full course policies.
Waitlist
- If this class is sold out, please sign up for the waitlist above to be considered in the event of a student cancellation.
Ticketing Page Issues - Troubleshooting Steps
- If the ticketing page doesn't allow you to purchase tickets and appears sold out, it is possible that another customer has those tickets waiting in their cart and we've reached venue capacity. Please return in 15 minutes and those tickets may be available if the other customer did not purchase them.
- If the error code [Object object] appears and prevents you from checking out, this usually means that you are entering some wrong information, likely the address and/or zip code connected to the credit card you are trying to use. Please double check your payment information and try again.
- If you continue to run into issues, please contact walker@railscomedy.com.